Cask Of Amontillado Mood

821 Words4 Pages

Setting and Tone: The Cask of Amontillado In The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe, Montresor murders Fortunato, who has offended him several times, by taking advantage of his enjoyment of wine. The central idea of the story is that alcoholism can lead to one’s demise due to its impacts on a person's mind. The settings of the festive carnival and the change to the unsettling catacomb of the Montresor family juxtapose one another and develops the central idea by representing the descent into mortality caused by alcoholism. The sinister tone of Montresor’s narration creates a sense of suspense for what Montresor’s process of revenge entails and furthers the central idea by symbolizing the force behind one’s death as the result of alcoholism. …show more content…

The town is unnamed, but catacombs where Montresor traps Fortunato are specified as where “the Montresors, had lived for centuries” (Poe 7). The setting is general, as indicated by the many allusions and implications towards Italian culture. Montresor live in palazzos, or Italian palaces, both have Italian names, Montresor meets Fortunato “one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season,” Latin phrases like “In pace requiescat!”, and that Fortunato’s attire consisted of “a tight fitting parti-striped dress, and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells” (Poe